Farming’s blame merchants should get off the soapbox and work with farmers.
Usually I wouldn’t pay this lot much attention as they consist of tired old dinosaurs, Fish & Game, the Environmental Defence Society and Massey University lecturer Dr Russell Death.
While intensive agriculture does have some negative impacts on our environment, most farmers and farming organisations have now recognised and accepted the science around this and have made substantial investments and improvements to remedy downstream problems.
* Te Aroha dairy farmer takes over reins as Waikato Federated Farmers president * Waikato Federated Farmers president stepping down after three years * Dairy farmers at the helm of Taranaki Federated Farmers * Federated Farmers hopes to boost numbers by recruiting young farmers Where is the admission from the board of Tourism New Zealand of the damage to the environment wreaked by millions of visitors, especially the pollution from "freedom campers"?
On walks along several of our local mountain tracks, I am disgusted to find human waste, paper and glass strewn around our native bush, rivers and streams.
Fish & Game shouldn’t throw stones, not until they can articulate their policies around protecting New Zealand waterways from wildfowl E. coli, and how they are protecting native fish stocks from their invasive predatory game fish.
And I guess the Massey University social experiment continues, with the hypothesis being that if we as a country can decimate around 30-40 per cent of our GDP through eliminating our world-class agricultural industry, somehow our standard of living will not only remain stable but could somehow improve.
Good luck with that.
While agriculture has had impacts on our water quality over the years, the main difference between agriculture and these other players is that we in the primary production sectors acknowledge and believe we have a real part to play in pursuing solutions and improving the quality of our waterways.
Bold claims I know, but where is this level of solution and commitment from Fish & Game, Massey University and New Zealand Tourism?